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Lobster bisque at the soup kitchen: how a charity is redistributing food | Society | guardian.co.uk

Nestled in the top of the crate are four squashy plastic containers full of thick pink liquid. Lindsay Boswell holds up a bag for inspection. It turns out to be lobster bisque. “It would be an absolute moral outrage for this not to be eaten by anybody when so many people are going hungry,” he says.Without the intervention of FareShare, this perfectly fresh soup, intended for a London restaurant but deemed surplus to requirements, would be poured down the drain. Now it will be sent to the Holy Cross soup kitchen and served up to homeless people and rough sleepers.FareShares depot in Bermondsey, south London, is a treasure trove: rows of shelves lined with tons of surplus items collected from supermarkets and food manufacturers. There are trays of biscuits and tinned tuna, baked beans and fresh apples, as well as more unusual items: bags of Chinese black fungus, Welsh celery salt, huge 4kg cans of Choucroute au Champagne and towers of army ration tins left over from the Olympics.